#psychedelicassistedtherapy — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #psychedelicassistedtherapy, aggregated by home.social.
-
DATE: August 7, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Psilocybin therapy sessions for PTSD are mostly silent, study finds
URL: https://www.psypost.org/psilocybin-therapy-sessions-for-ptsd-are-mostly-silent-study-finds/
A recent study published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology indicates that during high-dose psilocybin treatment sessions for post-traumatic stress disorder, participants and support staff spend the vast majority of their time in silence. The research suggests that the support provided during these sessions relies primarily on quiet, unobtrusive presence rather than active talk therapy. This offers an updated perspective on how the clinical administration of psychedelic compounds actually functions.
Psilocybin is a psychoactive compound found in certain species of “magic” mushrooms. In recent years, it has gained attention as a potential medical treatment for various mental health conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly known as PTSD. PTSD is a mental health condition triggered by experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event, often leading to severe anxiety, flashbacks, and uncontrollable thoughts. In clinical trials, psilocybin is typically administered in a controlled setting with trained support staff present to ensure safety.
A common misconception is that patients undergo traditional talk therapy while actively under the influence of the drug. This idea partly stems from the structure of other experimental treatments, such as trials involving MDMA, which often feature active, verbal psychotherapy during the drug session. Because high doses of psilocybin induce intense, internally focused altered states of consciousness, carrying on a regular therapeutic conversation is often impractical.
“There was a general misunderstanding around the term ‘psychedelic assisted psychotherapy’. It implies that a psychedelic drug is administered to boost a form of psychotherapy, which most people understand as verbal to and fro between a patient and a therapist,” said Guy M. Goodwin, chief medical officer at Compass Pathways and emeritus professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford.
Goodwin added, “In fact, as our paper shows, the vast majority of the time there is silence when a patient has taken a 25mg dose of COMP360 psilocybin. There is no psychotherapy going on. So, it makes more sense to call this a ‘psychedelic treatment’, which clearly places the emphasis on the drug’s effect.”
To explore these interactions, the scientists analyzed data from an open-label clinical trial involving 22 adult participants. All the participants had been diagnosed with PTSD and had a baseline score on a standard diagnostic scale indicating moderate to severe symptoms. Each person received a single 25-milligram dose of a synthetic psilocybin formulation known as COMP360.
The clinical outcomes for these participants provided important context for understanding the treatment’s impact. “This particular study was in patients with PTSD. Most of the patients experienced a clinically significant reduction in symptoms after a single 25mg dose of COMP360 psilocybin,” Goodwin noted. “Most described the treatment as preferable to either the drug or psychotherapy they had previously received.”
The rapid onset of these improvements stood out to the researchers. When asked about unexpected findings, Goodwin highlighted “[t]he immediacy of the therapeutic benefit, which had not been seen before for PTSD.”
The treatment process involved three distinct phases. First, participants attended three preparation sessions with two trained support providers. Next came the administration session, which lasted six to eight hours, during which participants lay in a dimly lit room, wore eyeshades, and listened to a standardized music playlist. Finally, participants attended three follow-up sessions to discuss their experiences.
The researchers recorded audio from all the sessions and transcribed the conversations. They then calculated the speech rate, measured in words per minute, for both the participants and the support providers. When analyzing the data, the authors controlled for the fact that each participant had multiple sessions and that some participants shared the same support providers. This mathematical control helped ensure the models accurately reflected the underlying speech patterns without falsely inflating the confidence of the estimates.
In addition to calculating word counts, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with the participants the day after the administration session. These interviews provided qualitative data about how the participants felt regarding the support they received. The researchers also asked participants to complete a questionnaire measuring the intensity of their altered state of consciousness at the end of the psilocybin session.
The analysis of the audio transcripts showed a stark contrast in speech rates between the different phases of the trial. During the psilocybin administration sessions, an average of 78 percent of the time passed without any talking. In comparison, silence accounted for only 25 to 30 percent of the total time during the preparation and follow-up sessions.
During the preparation phase, the words spoken per minute were generally balanced between the participants and the support staff. In the follow-up sessions, the participants spoke at a much higher rate than the providers. During the administration session itself, the speech rates for both groups dropped to very low levels. The talking that did occur mostly took place at the very beginning and the very end of the six-to-eight-hour window.
The researchers also found a negative correlation between the intensity of the psychedelic experience and the amount of talking. Participants who reported more intense feelings of boundlessness and ego dissolution tended to speak even fewer words per minute. This suggests that more immersive drug effects naturally limit the capacity or desire for verbal communication.
The post-session interviews provided evidence that participants appreciated the quiet approach of the staff. Many individuals reported that the support was unobtrusive but highly impactful. The quiet presence of the staff allowed participants the freedom to focus inwardly and autonomously navigate their own thoughts.
This internal focus is central to how the authors view the treatment’s mechanisms and future applications. Goodwin explained the team’s hope “that psychedelic treatment will be available for depressed patients who have not responded to conventional treatments next year and that it involves an inwardly directed intrapersonal experience, not psychotherapy.”
When participants did need support, it typically took the form of brief reassurance or validation. This included a staff member briefly holding a participant’s hand or offering a short verbal reminder of their physical location. Participants indicated that these small gestures provided an anchor of safety during periods of emotional intensity.
A small sample size is a primary limitation of this study, as it only included 22 individuals. The trial was also open-label, meaning both the researchers and the participants knew they were receiving psilocybin. Additionally, the measure of words per minute is a relatively simple metric for capturing the complexity of human language and clinical interaction.
A lack of conversation during therapy might outwardly resemble an absence of emotional support. However, the interview data suggests the quiet presence of staff members actively provided a strong sense of safety. The findings do not imply that verbal engagement is unimportant in mental health treatment as a whole. Instead, the research indicates that high-dose psilocybin sessions function differently than conventional talk therapy, relying on passive monitoring rather than active dialogue.
Future research could expand on these findings by studying larger groups of patients undergoing psychedelic treatments. Scientists might use natural language processing software to analyze the emotional tone and semantic content of the speech during these sessions.
The authors are already looking ahead to broader applications of their work. “We are in the process of submitting data to FDA in pursuit of an approval for the treatment of difficult to treat depression with COMP360 psilocybin. We are also starting a major late-stage study in PTSD,” Goodwin stated. He concluded, “We are not surprised by the findings of this study and we are very proud of COMP360’s differentiated clinical profile that has the potential to help the many millions of patients in need of new and effective options.”
The study, “Silence is golden: Documenting the speech production of participants and support providers in psilocybin administration sessions for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder,” was authored by Robert F. Dougherty, Nadav Liam Modlin, Niall M. McGowan, Patrick Staples, Ella Williams, Patrick Clarke, Mario Shafiei, Carly Leininger, Merve Alti, Megan Croal, Lindsey Marwood, Namik Kirlić, Gregory A. Ryslik, and Guy M. Goodwin.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/psilocybin-therapy-sessions-for-ptsd-are-mostly-silent-study-finds/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PsilocybinTherapy #PTSDTreatment #PsychedelicResearch #COMP360 #SilenceInTherapy #PsychedelicAssistedTherapy #PTSDRecovery #MentalHealthInnovation #ClinicalTrials #OxfordResearch
-
DATE: August 6, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Brief DMT trips linked to lasting improvements in quality of life for depressed patients
New research provides evidence that inhaling the psychedelic compound DMT, combined with psychological support, tends to reduce anxiety and improve life satisfaction in both healthy adults and individuals with depression. The findings suggest that the short-acting drug may foster long-term improvements in overall well-being and quality of life for people who do not respond to standard depression treatments. The study was published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Psychedelic-assisted interventions are gaining attention for their potential to treat severe mental health conditions. Much of this research focuses on treatment-resistant depression. This condition is diagnosed when a patient does not experience relief after trying at least two different antidepressant medications.
Historically, mental health treatments have focused heavily on reducing negative symptoms. Contemporary frameworks suggest that full recovery also requires improvements in broader areas of well-being, such as life satisfaction, physical health, and social relationships. Existing literature indicates that classic psychedelics like psilocybin and ayahuasca can enhance these existential and social domains.
Dráulio Barros de Araújo, a professor of neuroscience at the Brain Institute of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Natal and director of the Center for Advanced Medical Psychedelics noted that the research team wanted to explore these wider outcomes. “Most clinical studies of psychedelics, including our previous work with ayahuasca and DMT, have focused primarily on changes in psychiatric symptoms, particularly depression,” Araújo said. “But recovery from depression is about much more than reducing a score on a depression scale.”
“Patients want to feel less anxious, function better in their daily lives, reconnect socially, and regain a sense of satisfaction, hope, and well-being,” Araújo said. “We therefore wanted to examine whether the effects we had previously observed with inhaled DMT extended to these broader dimensions of recovery.”
DMT, or N,N-dimethyltryptamine, offers a unique profile among psychedelics. When inhaled, it produces an intense but very brief altered state of consciousness lasting only five to twenty minutes. In contrast, substances like psilocybin or ayahuasca can cause effects lasting up to eight hours.
The short duration of inhaled DMT could make psychedelic therapies more accessible and less costly to administer in clinical settings. The authors designed their research to see if this brief experience could foster lasting changes in life satisfaction and quality of life.
The new paper is a secondary analysis of two separate but related open-label clinical trials. An open-label trial means that both the researchers and the participants knew what substance was being administered. Both groups received purified DMT vaporized in a clinical room designed for comfort and safety. Before receiving the drug, all participants underwent preparation sessions with a psychologist to build trust and discuss expectations.
The first trial involved 25 healthy volunteers with an average age of 30.3 years. These participants had previous experience with psychedelics. On the dosing day, they received two doses of DMT spaced a few hours apart. The researchers tested five different dosing schemes, starting with a lower dose followed by a higher dose to test safety and tolerance.
During the DMT experience, participants listened to specially composed music and later engaged in psychological integration sessions. To measure outcomes, the researchers had participants complete standardized questionnaires. They tracked state anxiety, which refers to how anxious a person feels in the present moment, on a four-point scale. They also measured life satisfaction on a seven-point scale and quality of life on a five-point scale.
The healthy volunteers reported reduced state anxiety immediately after the first dose. This reduction persisted for one day following the session. The statistical change for the initial anxiety drop was large, shifting nearly one full standard deviation below their baseline anxiety levels.
These healthy participants also reported increased life satisfaction that lasted up to 14 days post-administration. However, the healthy group did not show changes in quality of life. The researchers noted this might be due to a ceiling effect, meaning their baseline quality of life scores were already too high to show further mathematical improvement on the surveys.
The second trial focused on 14 patients with treatment-resistant depression. This group had an average age of 35.2 years and minimal prior experience with psychedelics. These patients received a fixed dosing schedule of 15 milligrams of DMT for the first session and 60 milligrams for the second session on the same day. Patients continued taking their regular psychiatric medications during the study to prevent clinical destabilization.
Like the healthy volunteers, the patients experienced drops in state anxiety that lasted up to one day after the DMT sessions. Early improvements in anxiety among these patients were also positively correlated with rapid decreases in self-reported depressive symptoms. The researchers looked closely at the magnitude of these initial changes across the participant group.
“Some of the observed effects were substantial,” Araújo told PsyPost. “In patients, the reduction in state anxiety immediately after the DMT session had a very large effect size, and improvements in life satisfaction, inner peace, and particularly hope and optimism were also large at the time points where significant differences were detected.”
“But effect sizes from a small, uncontrolled study should be interpreted cautiously,” Araújo said. “What I find particularly interesting is not only their magnitude, but the fact that the changes appeared across several dimensions of patients’ lives rather than being restricted to depressive symptoms.”
Beyond short-term anxiety relief, the patients reported enduring benefits over a longer period. They demonstrated increased life satisfaction at the 12-month mark compared to their baseline scores. The patients also reported sustained increases in physical, psychological, social, and environmental quality of life from 14 days up to 12 months.
When answering questions focused on spirituality and personal beliefs, the patients showed long-term enhancements in specific psychological areas. They reported improvements in feelings of inner peace at the 14-day mark. They also reported elevated levels of hope and optimism at both 14 days and 12 months after the sessions.
Araújo highlighted how unusual it is for a short-acting drug to be linked to such prolonged benefits. “The long-term findings were probably the most striking,” Araújo said. “DMT produces an extremely short psychedelic experience, generally lasting only several minutes, so observing improvements in some measures of quality of life as far as 12 months later is remarkable, especially when considering that patients were submitted to a single intervention with DMT.”
“We were also interested in seeing improvements in hope, optimism, and inner peace, because these dimensions are rarely considered primary outcomes in conventional antidepressant studies,” Araújo said. These distinct outcomes suggest a broader scope for evaluating mental health interventions.
“The main message is that the effects associated with DMT may extend beyond the reduction of depressive symptoms,” Araújo said. “In patients with treatment-resistant depression, we observed rapid reductions in anxiety and improvements in quality of life that were still detectable months later.”
“Life satisfaction was also significantly higher at the 12-month follow-up,” Araújo said. “Interestingly, some of the improvements involved very concrete aspects of quality of life, including physical and psychological health, social relationships, the environment, and hope and inner peace.”
The open-label design of both trials means that expectancy effects could have influenced the outcomes. Because participants knew they were receiving a powerful psychedelic, their anticipation of getting better might have artificially inflated their self-reported improvements. The lack of a placebo group prevents researchers from ruling out this possibility.
“At the same time, these findings should be considered preliminary,” Araújo said. “This was a small, open-label study without a placebo group, so we cannot conclude that DMT alone caused the long-term changes we observed.”
The intervention combined the pharmacological effects of DMT with extensive psychological support, music, and expressive exercises. It is not possible to separate the impact of the drug from the impact of the therapeutic environment. The small sample sizes and specific demographics of the participants also limit how well these findings apply to the broader public.
The long-term improvements seen in the patient group are also subject to external influences. The patients continued their usual clinical treatments, including other psychiatric medications, over the 12-month follow-up period. Natural changes in the course of their illness, new therapies, or major life events during that year could explain the sustained gains in quality of life.
“I would strongly caution against interpreting this study as evidence that a single dose of DMT produces benefits lasting for a year,” Araújo said. “Participants received DMT in a carefully controlled clinical environment together with psychological preparation, support during the experience, and integration afterward.”
“They also continued their usual clinical care, and many things can happen over a 12-month period,” Araújo said. “Because there was no placebo group, we cannot separate the pharmacological effects of DMT from psychological support, expectations, subsequent treatments, life events, or the natural course of depression.”
The researchers emphasized that these treatments require specialized protocols and safety measures. “Another important point is that these findings should not be interpreted as supporting unsupervised use of DMT,” Araújo said. “The intervention was conducted under medical and psychological supervision in accordance with clinical research protocols.”
Future placebo-controlled, double-blind studies with larger groups are needed to better understand the true therapeutic profile of inhaled DMT. The authors plan to expand their investigations to see if these initial patterns hold up under stricter experimental conditions.
“Our main priority now is to test inhaled DMT in larger and more rigorous controlled clinical trials,” Araújo said. “We are currently moving this research into a multicenter clinical study in patients with treatment-resistant depression.” A multicenter study involves conducting the trial at multiple clinics or hospitals to gather a larger and more diverse group of patients.
“Beyond determining whether the antidepressant effect can be replicated under controlled conditions, we are increasingly interested in understanding recovery more broadly, including quality of life, functioning, anxiety, suicidality, and other dimensions that matter to patients,” Araújo said. If successful, inhaled psychedelics could offer practical advantages for widespread clinical use.
“DMT is particularly interesting from a public health perspective because its psychedelic effects are very brief compared with substances such as psilocybin or ayahuasca,” Araújo said. “If its clinical efficacy is confirmed in larger controlled studies, this short duration could make psychedelic treatment considerably easier to integrate into health care systems.”
The focus on overall well-being represents a shifting paradigm in how medical professionals evaluate mental health treatments. “I think the broader point is that psychiatry should perhaps ask a larger question when evaluating new treatments: not only ‘Are the symptoms better?’ but also ‘Is the person living better?'” Araújo said.
“Depression affects relationships, work, physical functioning, hope, and the way people experience their own lives,” Araújo said. “For us, understanding whether psychedelic interventions can influence these dimensions is an important part of determining their actual clinical value.”
The study, “Beyond symptom reduction: DMT improves anxiety, life satisfaction, and quality of life in healthy volunteers and patients with depression,” was authored by Raynara Bolcont, Fernanda Palhano-Fontes, Handersson Barros, Sophie Laborde, Daniel Amorim, Marcelo Falchi-Carvalho, Nicole Galvão-Coelho, Isabel Wießner, and Draulio B. Araujo.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #DMTtherapy #PsychedelicResearch #DepressionTreatment #LifeSatisfaction #QualityOfLife #AnxietyRelief #TreatmentResistantDepression #PsychedelicAssistedTherapy #MentalHealthInnovation #ClinicalTrials
-
Expanded Salience Network Emerges as a Promising Early Biomarker for Depression Risk - SCIENMAG https://apple.news/AGgiVIPEqSwiu_xTIz-GbJg #ketamine #ketamineassistedtherapy #psychedelicassistedtherapy #depression #neuroscience #depression #brains #psychedelics #psychedelic #psychedelicresearch #harmreduction #diet #exercise #mentalhealth
-
https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.20230785 Healing, Harms, and Humility: Expanding the Scope of Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy Research (O’Donnell, et al 2025) #psychedelic #psychedelics #psychedelicassistedpsychotherapy #psychedelicassistedtherapy #psychedelicresearch #mentalhealth #psychedelicmentalhealth
-
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39699759/ Therapeutic Potential of MDMA- and Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy for Adolescent Depression and Trauma (Geller, et al, 2024) #mdma #psilocybin #psychedelic #psychedelics #mentalhealth #psychedelicassistedtherapy
-
https://psychedelicmentalhealth.net/spotlight-smart-recovery-psychedelic-assisted-psychotherapy/ #psychedelics #ketamine #mentalhealth #psychedelicmentalhealth #recovery #cognitivebehavioraltherapy #neuroscience #psychedelictherapy #psychedelicassistedtherapy #psychedelicassistedpsychotherapy #ketaminetherapy #ketamineassistedpsychotherapy #psychedelicresearch #smartrecovery
-
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39564631/ Acute severe pain in emergency department: Morphine or low-dose ketamine? #ketamine #pain #EmergencyDepartment Fun fact: Low dose ketamine may have psychedelic effects as profound as other psychedelic medicines, compounds and plants, also being studied for pain. #psychedelic #psychedelics #psychedelicassistedtherapy #ketamineassistedtherapy #ketaminetherapy A psychedelic therapist can prepare and debrief someone being treated in this approach. #mentalhealth #mindbody
-
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278584624001970 Classic psychedelics and the treatment for alcoholism (Lodetti, et al, 2024) #psychedelics #psychedelic #psilocybin #alcoholism #psychedelicassistedtherapy #psychedelicassistedpsychotherapy #mentalhealth #psychedelicmentalhealth
-
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10564926241267208 Psychedelics, Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy and Employees’ Wellbeing (Smith, et al, 2024) #psychedelic #labor #psychedelics #mentalhealth #psychedelicassistedpsychotherapy #ketamineassistedpsychotherapy #ketamine #work #wellbeing #psychedelicassistedtherapy
-
Review of The Ketamine Papers: Science, Therapy, and Transformation edited by Phil Wolfson, M.D., and Glenn Hartelius, Ph.D. (Ziegler, 2016) https://maps.org/news/bulletin/ketamine-a-transformational-catalyst/ #ketamine #psychedelic #psychedelics #psychedelicassistedtherapy #psychedelicassistedpsychotherapy #ketaminetherapy #ketamineassistedpsychotherapy #fda #psychedelicresearch Note— Wolfson reports a new edition coming soon
-
MindMed, a pharmaceutical corporation that is not MAPS/Lykos, has several FDA-approved psychedelic studies in the works — #lsd analog for #anxiety and #depression and r-mdma form of #mdma for autism spectrum disorders #psychedelics #psychedelic #psychedelicresearch #psychedelicassistedtherapy #psychedelicmentalhealth #fda #phase2 #phase3 https://ir.mindmed.co/news-events/press-releases/detail/158/mindmed-reports-second-quarter-2024-financial-results-and-business-updates
-
Psychedelic Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: On Ketamine, Context and Competencies in "Assisted-Psychotherapy”
There are many tools to help a psychotherapist help clients learn to speak the language of cognitive behavioral therapy, especially tools which may help facilitate therapeutic alliance, including, but not limited to telehealth. https://psychedelicmentalhealth.net/psychedelic-therapy-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-ketamine-context-competencies/ #ketamine #psychedelic #mentalhealth #psychedelics #fda #Psychedelicassistedtherapy #psychedelicassistedpsychotherapy #ketaminetherapy -
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38401800/ Recreational MDMA doses do not elicit hepatotoxicity in HepG2 spheroids under normo- and hyperthermia (de Oliveira, et al, 2024) #mdma #fda #psychedelic #psychedelics #psychedelicresearch #fda #studydesign #litreview #ptsd #psychedelicassistedtherapy #mdmaassistedtherapy #entactogens #neuroscience
-
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38979497/ Ketamine in the effective management of chronic pain, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder for Veterans: A meta-analysis and systematic review (Liu, et al, 2024) #ketamine #pain #depression #ptsd #psychedelic #psychedelics #psychedelicresearch #psychedelicmentalhealth #mentalhealth #veterans #chronicpain #fda #studydesign #litreview #ketamineassistedtherapy #psychedelicassistedtherapy
-
https://psychedelicmentalhealth.net/psychedelic-therapy-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-ketamine-context-competencies/ Psychedelic Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: On Ketamine, Context and Competencies in "Assisted-Psychotherapy” #psychedelic #psychedelics #cognitivebehavioraltherapy #psychedelicresearch #studydesign #fda #mdma #cbt #ketamine #ketamineassistedtherapy #psychedelicassistedtherapy #ketamineassistedpsychotherapy #psychedelicassistedpsychotherapy #lsd #psilocybin #neuroscience #telehealth
-
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-024-00252-y Psychedelic-assisted therapy among sexual and gender minority communities (Hanshaw, et al, 2024) #minoritystress #queer #psychedelic #psychedelicassistedtherapy
-
https://www.psychiatrist.com/jcp/ketamine-plus-psychotherapy-for-ptsd/ #ketamine #psychotherapy #ptsd #fda #mdma #studydesign #research #psychedelics #psychedelic #ketamineassistedpsychotherapy #psychedelicassistedtherapy #psychedelicassistedpsychotherapy #ketaminetherapy #metaanalysis #litreview #psychotherapy #mentalhealth